BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) \u2014 European Union officials are meeting Friday in Budapest with members of Hungarian election winner P\u00e9ter Magyar\u2019s team about pressing issues including a massive loan for Ukraine as well as unlocking about 17 billion euros ($20 billion) of aid for Hungary withheld during the reign of outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n
Magyar will take power in May, but the EU is hoping to jump-start talks to fast-track cooperation with the new government, said European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho in Brussels on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe clock is ticking for a number of topics,\u201d said Pinho. The \u201cpreliminary talks\u201d in Budapest before Magyar takes office are to \u201cmake sure that once the government is in place action can be taken, if appropriate, and that we do not waste any time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The EU froze the billions in funding to Hungary over concerns of corruption and democratic backsliding during Orb\u00e1n\u2019s 16-year rule. But both the EU and Hungary\u2019s incoming leaders have prioritized releasing them as soon as possible to give a much-needed injection of cash into Hungary\u2019s ailing economy. <\/p>\n
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X on Tuesday that \u201cthere is swift work to be done to restore, realign and reform\u201d Hungary\u2019s policies in order to unblock the funds. <\/p>\n
\u201cRestore the rule of law. Realign with our shared European values. And reform, to unlock the opportunities offered by European investments,\u201d said the EU executive, who herself was often vilified by Orb\u00e1n during his campaign. <\/p>\n
Magyar, whose party Tisza won a super-majority in parliament which will enable deep and quick reforms, has said his government will prioritize policies affecting judicial independence, academic and media freedom and anti-corruption in order to get access to the money.<\/p>\n
In his first public press conference after winning in a landslide on April 12, Magyar said Monday that Hungary \u201cis in a very difficult financial situation,\u201d and that his new government\u2019s task will be \u201cto bring home the money that is hers.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that, unlike Orb\u00e1n, he would stick to a deal struck in December to provide Ukraine with a much-needed 90-billion-euro loan. Orb\u00e1n had vetoed the bill after initially agreeing to it, enraging EU officials and counterparts across the 27-nation bloc.<\/p>\n
Unlocking funds will require economic and government reform<\/p>\n
The funds are split between 10 billion euros of COVID recovery funds and 6.3 billion euros in the cohesion funds designed to lift up struggling economics within the EU.<\/p>\n
Brussels and Budapest are rushing to first unlock the COVID funds because they are set to expire in August. <\/p>\n
Hungary, a major net recipient of EU funds, had come under increasing criticism for veering away from democratic norms. The Commission had for more than a decade accused Orb\u00e1n of dismantling democratic institutions, taking control of the media and infringing on minority rights. Orb\u00e1n rejected the accusations and denounced them as interference in Hungary\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n
The Commission suspended the money<\/a> to Budapest in 2022 over what it said was democratic backsliding by Hungary\u2019s right-wing populist government and failures to tackle corruption and ensure judicial independence. A year later, the Commission found that the government had carried out sufficient reforms to have around 10.2 billion euros ($12.1 billion) released<\/a>.<\/p>\n Magyar can move almost instantly to reform Hungary enough to unlock the funds, said Zsolt Darvas, a fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the legislative work can be done in a single day if there is a will from the Tisza party to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s relatively straight forward and not technically difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n That would involve changing how judges are selected and what power they have.<\/p>\n And Magyar can overcome any setbacks because of the August deadline for the COVID funds by following the example of Poland and Portugal where some of the funds were put in a national development bank for later dispersal, he said.<\/p>\n But Darvas said that out of the 16 billion euros, Hungary has already lost about 2 billion euros because the funds were suspend for two years \u2014 and Hungary has been paying 1 million euros a day since June 13, 2024, on top of a 200 million-euro fine over Orb\u00e1n\u2019s refusal to align Hungary\u2019s asylum processing claims with EU standards.<\/p>\n Again, Darvas said, Hungary could follow Poland\u2019s path by staying mostly closed to migration but still respecting EU law and thus ending those fines.<\/p>\n Hungary\u2019s economic crisis won\u2019t be solved alone by these funds, Darvas said, but by complying with EU regulations, the new government will signal that the country is a stable place for investments. <\/p>\n More money is available for the defense industry <\/p>\n Hungary could also receive mass sums of money if it joins the EU\u2019s 150 billion-euro Security Action for Europe initiative, or SAFE, which is designed to boost Europe\u2019s defense readiness at a time when the U.S. has been diminishing its role in the continent\u2019s security.<\/p>\n So far, 18 of the EU\u2019s 27 nations have received low-interest defense loans, and Hungary is eligible for 16 billion euros through the program. With the other two tranches of cash, these funds would roughly equal 15% of Hungary\u2019s GDP, according to an analysis by Jeremy Cliffe at the European Council on Foreign Relations. <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n McNeil reported from Brussels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) \u2014 European Union officials are meeting Friday in Budapest with members of Hungarian election winner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8310,3375,895,591,592,50,5142,8,1819,1821,10733,9,10732,67,7,6474,1820,106],"class_list":{"0":"post-17349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-coronavirus","9":"tag-corruption","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-government-regulations","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-hungary","17":"tag-hungary-government","18":"tag-jeremy-cliffe","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-paula-pinho","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","24":"tag-viktor-orban","25":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116420475758517830","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}